Bug: refresh_token doesn't work as documented

[jwatte]

Environment details

• OS: macOS 14.4.1 (23E224)
• Python version: Python 3.12.3
• pip version: pip 24.0
• google-auth version: Version: 2.29.0

Steps to reproduce

A full script (minus the cloud-project-side setup) is available at:
https://gist.github.com/jwatte/e46c4bfd0e4cfd5238dbff3d68f65072

In brief:

• The documentation says that access_token is optional (could be None) if a refresh_token is provided. However, this doesn't work.
• The refresh() function, whether called automatically or manually, seems to never succeed for tokens acquired through the DeviceClient flow.

This means that a device can't save the refresh token locally, and then obtain a new access token when needed.
Given how cumbersome the device sign-in/authorization flow is, having to do this frequently is very high friction, and makes using oauth2 instead of service account keys impossible for kiosk-type implementations.

To make sure all the information is also in this ticket, here is the reproduction script:

from google.oauth2 import credentials
from google.cloud import storage
from oauthlib.oauth2 import DeviceClient
from requests_oauthlib import OAuth2Session
from google.auth.transport import requests

import json
import time
import os

# I'm trying to build a kiosk type appliance in tkinter in Python,
# where I can log in once, and then use the refresh token each time
# the program starts, until the refresh token expires and I need to
# re-authenticate (every 30 days?)
#
# To reproduce the problem I'm seeing, create a client for DeviceFlow
# authentication and configure the parameters below here.
CLIENT_ID = os.getenv("CLIENT_ID")
CLIENT_SECRET = os.getenv("CLIENT_SECRET")
PROJECT = os.getenv("PROJECT")
SCOPE = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_write']
DEVICE_AUTH_URL = 'https://oauth2.googleapis.com/device/code'
TOKEN_URL = 'https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token'

# start a device client flow
client = DeviceClient(client_id=CLIENT_ID)
oauth = OAuth2Session(client=client)
device_auth_response = oauth.post(DEVICE_AUTH_URL, data={
    'client_id': CLIENT_ID,
    'scope': ' '.join(SCOPE)
})
darj = device_auth_response.json()
print(f"oauth response: {json.dumps(darj)}", flush=True)
device_code = darj['device_code']
user_code = darj['user_code']
verification_url = darj['verification_url']
print(f"Please visit {verification_url} and paste the code: {user_code}", flush=True)

# wait for the user to go through the flow
input("Press return when you are done:")
while True:
    token_response = oauth.post(TOKEN_URL, data={
        'client_id': CLIENT_ID,
        'client_secret': CLIENT_SECRET,
        'device_code': device_code,
        'grant_type': 'urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code'
    })
    if token_response.status_code == 200:
        # Successfully retrieved the token
        token = token_response.json()
        break
    if token_response.json().get('error') == 'authorization_pending':
        print("waiting for authorization ...", flush=True)
        time.sleep(5.0)
    else:
        raise Exception(f"Error in token request: {token_response.json()['error']}")

print(f"got token: {json.dumps(token)}", flush=True)
# save credentials
with open("/tmp/creds.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(token, f)

# The first full login works
print("\n\ncase 1", flush=True)
creds1 = credentials.Credentials(token['access_token'],
                                refresh_token=token['refresh_token'],
                                token_uri=TOKEN_URL,
                                client_id=CLIENT_ID,
                                client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET,
                                scopes=SCOPE)
storage1 = storage.Client(credentials=creds1, project=PROJECT)
buckets1 = [b for b in storage1.list_buckets()]
print(f"buckets1: {len(buckets1)}")

# A login without the access token doesn't work, even though the
# docs for credentials.Credentials() says it should.
print("\n\ncase 2", flush=True)
try:
    creds2 = credentials.Credentials(None,
                                    refresh_token=token['refresh_token'],
                                    token_uri=TOKEN_URL,
                                    client_id=CLIENT_ID,
                                    client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET,
                                    scopes=SCOPE)
    storage2 = storage.Client(credentials=creds2, project=PROJECT)
    buckets2 = [b for b in storage2.list_buckets()]
    print(f"buckets2: {len(buckets2)}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"case 2 didn't work: {e}", flush=True)

# Refreshing using the documented way to refresh also doesn't work
print("\n\ncase 3", flush=True)
try:
    creds1.refresh(requests.Request())
    print(f"refresh worked, access token {creds1.token}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"case 3 didn't work: {e}")

# wait for authtoken to expire
print("Waiting for authtoken to expire (takes 1 hour by default)", flush=True)
time.sleep(3601)

# read back credentials
with open("/tmp/creds.json", "r") as f:
    token = json.load(f)

# The second login doesn't work, so something is being consumed
# in the first login.
print("\n\ncase 4", flush=True)
try:
    creds4 = credentials.Credentials(token['access_token'],
                                    refresh_token=token['refresh_token'],
                                    token_uri=TOKEN_URL,
                                    client_id=CLIENT_ID,
                                    client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET,
                                    scopes=SCOPE)
    storage4 = storage.Client(credentials=creds4, project=PROJECT)
    buckets4 = [b for b in storage4.list_buckets()]
    print(f"buckets4: {len(buckets4)}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"case 4 didn't work: {e}", flush=True)

And here is the logged output from running the script (and waiting an hour, because of the last case):

(venv) jwatte@Jons-MacBook-Pro videoripper % python bug.py 
oauth response: {"device_code": "AH-1Nxxxxx", "user_code": "PJV-xxxxx", "expires_in": 1800, "interval": 5, "verification_url": "https://www.google.com/device"}
Please visit https://www.google.com/device and paste the code: PJV-QQQ-TNT
Press return when you are done:
got token: {"access_token": "ya29.a0AXoxxxxx", "expires_in": 3599, "refresh_token": "1//06_xxxxx", "scope": "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_write", "token_type": "Bearer"}


case 1
buckets1: 273


case 2
case 2 didn't work: Reauthentication is needed. Please run `gcloud auth application-default login` to reauthenticate.


case 3
case 3 didn't work: Reauthentication is needed. Please run `gcloud auth application-default login` to reauthenticate.


case 4
case 4 didn't work: Reauthentication is needed. Please run `gcloud auth application-default login` to reauthenticate.

[arithmetic1728]

This is expected behavior.

case 1 works because you provided a valid token, the auth lib just uses it without refreshing it.

In the other 3 cases token refresh is used. Your organization admin sets up reauth policy, however,

• reauth is not supported for third party apps (like the client you are building, only the first party apps such as directly using gcloud to call storage API is supported)
• reauth is not supported for device code flow. Only the regular 3LO flow is supported.

Therefore, the solution would be re-login with the device code flow after the token expires. Another less secure option would be letting the admin exempt trusted apps, which neutralizes reauth for everything except 1P apps.

[clundin25]

Closing this as stale. Please re-open should you have further questions.

Thanks!